Incredible Louie Ferrigno BEATS THEM ALL!

The new IFBB "Mr. Universe" winner - a 21-year old giant - is one of the
most phenomenal bodybuilders ever! Super-massive with marble-carved
definition, he accepted his win over Ken Waller and Mike Katz and the rest of
the world's best, calmly and casually -- next target -- Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

by George Kay,East Coast Editor

Six unmarked busses churned through the rain-swept and cobbled streets of
Geneva, exiting the city as they rolled north along its beautiful lakefront
towards a suburb, a picturesque community half buried in Fall by Alpine
avalanches fallen from peaks high above. None of the passengers was concerned
with the unique scenery, though nearly all were foreigners and few had ever been
near Switzerland.

Rather, they sat in national groups and made nervous conversation that only
others of their type could follow. They were of four continents, and when
individuals from different groups communicated, the lack of mutual tongue meant
little; physical gestures replaced words. Their common denominator was anxiety
and uncertainty. It was clear to outsiders that something vital had assembled
these men, and that there were outsiders aboard, such as photographers, newsmen,
video-tapers and illustrators. But they were unable to communicate with the
subjects commanding their attention - at least not yet - for tension, solid as
steel, filled the vehicles and made relating with non-breathren impossible.
This band was not common tourists, and the busses were not rambling through a
5-day-package tour of Europe

WORLD BODYBUILDING CHAMPIONSHIPS1973 I.F.B.B. MR. UNIVERSE

Class 3 - Under 5'5" (1m 65)

G. Deiana, Holland

H. Plumans, Belgium

F. Berange, France

R. Bertagna, Italy

J. Maldonado, Puerto Rico

J. Diaz, Puerto Rico

Class 2 - 5'5" to below 5'8" (1m 72)

A. Beccles, England

A. Enunlu, Turkey

M. Annette, France

H. Bonsfield, Malta

S. Jacobs, Belgium

J. Rudman, Yugoslavia

Class 1 - Over 5'8" (1m 72)

L. Ferrigno, U.S.A.

K. Waller, U.S.A.

M. Katz, U.S.A.

F. Labrador, France

M. Gokeen, Turkey

B. Herder, Holland

I.F.B.B. Mr. Univere

Lou Ferrigno

World Bodybuilding TeamChampionships

United States of America - 16 pts.

France - 11 pts.

Holland - 8 pts.

England - 7 pts.

Belgium - 7 pts.
Turkey - 7 pts.

These men were heading for a date with destiny in the auditorium of a
19th-Century Swiss high school. In this odd setting, they would strip nearly
naked to reveal their muscular and well-oiled bodies to a panel of nine others
for whom they would perform ritualistic and almost artistic rites. Then,
feeling somewhat exorcised for their gyrations, due to the pent-up anxiety of
this particular meeting, they would dress, reboard the busses, and then pray
that what seemed a lifetime's preparation was not in vain.

The men were all young and handsome, uniformly broad of shoulders and narrow
of waist. At home, they were gods of divine muscularity - often household names
- selected by eliminations to represent their cities or countries at a
Convocation Of The Gods to determine who was foremost among them. So it no
longer mattered to each that he was a native hero. here, sitting in green
pastel seats, whitened knuckles dug into armrests, each man knew he would soon
face his moment-of-truth against others equal to, or better than, himself.

Seventy-nine hopefuls set out in the fresh, wet morning, mouths dry and
concern creasing their young faces. And all would return knowing little of
their fate. But the inbound ride would be tangibly different - the 1973 Mr.
Universe was already chosen . . . along with his court of runners-up.
He was somewhere in the caravan of vehicles, anonymously wheeling
through the Geneva streets. And he would be revealed to the world
a few hours hence. Seventy-nine hearts beat faster . . .

The winner was picked - he could be any one of them.

A Clint Eastwood flick was playing in beautiful downtown Geneva. The
sound-track was French, but the action was all-American. "I hop that's a good
omen," commented Ed Jubinville. Ed is the American co-delegate to the I.F.B.B.
International Congress. He was talking to the U.S. squad which consisted of
Mike Katz, Ken Waller and Louis Ferrigno as they crossed Hannibal Square to
return to their luxurious suite at the Mediterranean Hotel after pre-judging.
There was little doubt that the trio of AABA Mr. America winners
would place high, but with no U.S. representation in two height classes, could
they score enough points for us to retain the team trophy? The team win was the
focus of much attention during Universeweek. To gain equality with
other amateur sport organizations, the I.F.B.B., throughout 1973, had been
stressing the importance of team and international competition as much as
individual posedown efforts.

Just who would emerge the big winner was left unspoken by the American
troopers. Neither Katz or Waller knew Ferrigno very well before they emplaned
from JFK airport in New York, but they got on fabulously well during this week.
Each wanted success, but yet hated to deprive the others. Thus, they did not
talk of victory or defeat, but only of how they wished their squad well in the
face of stiffening foreign competition.

The strain on these great champions, and on other stars, was accelerated in
the interim between pre-judging and the show's opening curtain at eight o'clock.
Fore Three hours, every major hotel lobby, every street corner and restaurant
was ablaze with rumor. Was it an American shoo-in? Would Beccles repeat?
Maybe the rising young Turk, Enunlu, or the giant Labrador from France? The
television crew from Wide World of Sports was besieged for inside
information. There to cover the show live for Europe, and on tape for the
domestic market in early 1974, the ABC staff had watched
pre-judging, but knew nothing. Dennis Stallard and the judges had the winner's
identities under lock and key, and only a major change in form of a competitor
on the posing dais would alter the verdicts.

No outsider could hazard a valid guess at the ultimate results, and, as the
curtain lifted in stately Victoria Hall for the 1973 I.F.B.B. WORLD
BODYBUILDING AND MR. UNIVERSE CHAMPIONSHIPS, 3,000 spectators, 200 delegates,
and nearly fourscore contestants, breathlessly anticipated the extravaganza of a
lifetime!

And truly it was! Ben Weider thanked the Mayor of Geneva for his cooperation
in opening the city to bodybuilding and bodybuilders. Ben gave his
traditionally optimistic keynote address stressing I.F.B.B. gains during the
past twelve months and its vital plans for 1974 and beyond - which included
Olympic Games recognition. Then the official Geneva band, smartly outfitted in
blue and white uniforms and accompanied by 50 stunning drum majorettes,
brassed-out a medley of martial tunes to prepare us for the oncoming Parade of
Nations.

From stage left, the muscular marvels marched on in national units. An
entrant from each country held his flag proudly, and a second carried a placard
denoting the country's name. The band played several measures of each national
anthem, and after seemingly endless tons of muscular might packed the stage, the
Swiss Anthem was played as the bodybuilders stood at attention. It was quite a
moving sight, similar to ancient Olympic pageantry I would imagine, and a thrill
for bodybuilding journalists and historians who have watched the slow but
inexorable rise of our sport's popularity and public acceptance. Crowd
enthusiasm was beyond description! I seemed to be standing in the ear-splitting
glidepath of a 747 and wondered how the frantic mass would react at award time.

THE MUSCLE WORLD'S SHOW OF SHOWS BEGINS

The canvas dropped, then ascended a moment later for the individual posing.
"Morituri te salutamus," quipped one bodybuilder to renowned
Oscar State, the backstage expeditor. "We, who are about to die, salute you:"
Roman gladiators uttered it to the Caesars, and this entrant was only
half-kidding. he had struggled for five years to enter Mr.
Universe competition, and spent his family's savings to get here. If he
didn't fare well, death might be an appropriate alternative.

Goliaths of various sizes, shapes and colors strutted to the posing platform
for a full ninety minutes, and the audience roared incessantly! Appearing in
alphabetical order (first letter of country's name), each native son slipped
thru twenty or so poses, displaying every body part to its quintessence; then
finished with the conventional "Most Muscular" pose, or perhaps his particular
favorite. As the fet progressed, possible winners were evidenced. Little
Deinna of Holland - what a monster he was! - tough luck, though, he's so short.
Johnny Maldonado of NY, but competing for Puerto Rico, gained clamorous
applause. Serge Jacobs, for Belgium, appeared to be giving Enunlu and Beccles a
run for it in the "Middle Height" class.

Presently, the Turks were up, and the U.S. contingent on deck. I studied our
guys' faces and tried to read their thoughts. It was Mike Katz' second crack at
"Mr. U." Last year he was big, but soft. nearly laughed off stage, he had come
back ferociously through 1973! His pecs were monstrous panels of thick muscle,
enlarging an already enormous chest. He would give his left gonad to win! Ken
Waller is younger than Mike, and training comes easier to him; California
weights are his life, but I got the feeling that win or lose he would be back
next year, or years thereafter, until he won. He did not have the desperate
look of Katz for whom, perhaps, time is running out.

And then, we have little 6'5", 270-pound Louie Ferrigno - the team's baby at
21, and the reigning AABA Mr. America. In 1972, he lost to Paul
Grant in the mickey mouse NABBA Mr. Universe event on a
questionable decision. Subsequently, he dumped his job to train harder. Every
day he subway round-tripped four hours to reach his favorite gym. He knew his
greatest admirers - his mother and father back in Brooklyn - were praying for
him. Yet, he had perhaps the least need to triumph right now, with a limitless
future ahead. But one glance at Ferrigno gut-busting in the warmup room said he
wasn't thinking about 1974. Winning this one this
night was on his schedule to beat Arnold Schwarzenegger some day. Louie had
made sensational and unabated progress for four years, and here was the big
payoff!

Louie looked confident; he looked ready. I had seen the same look in the
eyes of Muhammed Ali the night he destroyed Sonny Liston! But comparing the
three Yanks backstage, one could select three winners. They were that close -
and later the scorecards showed it. They drew straws to see who would pose
first. Katz lost and walked to the platform.

Three thousand throats exploded as if Hercules himself had just blown in from
Mt. Olympus! We all thought Mr. Universe was upon us, so it was as
Katz so outclassed all prior displayers. Wall-to-wall shoulders, arms like
thighs like rippled tree trunks bedazzled the viewers. And even after he
stepped off the posing platform, the cheers only halted after the emcee said
Ferrigno would come out next. It was fantastic!

FERRIGNO BLOWS THE CROWD'S MIND!

Now, the brave rookie from Flatbush materialized to face a band of skeptics
who, in seconds, would be converted to devoted worshippers. They had heard of
Louie and had seen his pictures, but few could believe the larger-than-life
reports of this Italo-American behemoth which drifted across the Atlantic from
America.

He was not just taller than Katz, but bigger nearly everywhere; thirty pounds
more muscle and no pounds more fat! Gigantic arms, a chest generous enough for
two men, seam-splitting thighs and back yardage you couldn't carpet for a
thousand dollars. A small, razor-sharp midsection from where the muscles
stretched 77 inches high, or slipped via 20" calves to the dais.

Ferrigno needn't have posed, needn't have twicthed a single muscle fibre, or
lifted a toe. Just to see him inert was to believe the unbelievable. The
biggest superstar ever, and all of him cut to shreds; lacerated, the skin
beaten and hacked away so that only sinews and tendons and veins and striations
and unbespeakable musclemusclemuscle remained. . .

For long seconds, he stood motionless. The audience was so enthralled, so
enraptured and amazed by this lineal descendent of Samson that they could not
utter a sound. Suddenly, up wen the 23" arms, out to the very edges of the
stage zapped the cape-like lats! Swollen biceps banged against his head like
gargantuan watermelons . . . and now the body was twisted sideways, in profile,
and the chest momentarily dwarfed everything, but presently raw
slabs of beef grew from the arm; triceps wider than the chest's cross-section hid
the rib box. The back was shown - the crowd seemed horrified! It was not a
human on this stage before them! Backs like this only grew in artist's dreams,
not on flesh-and-blood people. Traps and lats writhed like
tortured eels asking out.

There was madness in Victoria Hall when Louie checked-out his legs. The
knocked-out mob didn't know whether to laugh, cry, cheer or just wonder if it
was hallucinating. Another minute and the frenzy would have blown the old opera
house apart. Here came the "Most Muscular" pose. Louie bent forward and
crunched the arms together. Every fibre of every muscle struggled to leave its
neighbor. Muscle begged release from tendon. Louie turned colors; his veings
bulging like advanced varicosities. The arms were pumping to 24 or 25 inches,
but no one cared and no one counted. When you see God, you do not ask his
measurements. Self-satisfied, and deservedly so, Louie finished up. He hit a
few additional shots to answer the crowd's "Encore! Encore!" and pounded away.
Comically, the fans were left cheering riotously at an empty stage. An ABC
technician noted later he had never heard such noise. Audiometric readings said
the decibel level indicated an audience closer to 30,000 than 3,000!

Ken Waller was out next and really on the spot! He had the toughest act in
musclebiz to follow. his confidence never waned, and neither did audience
appreciation. He carried them thru his well-tuned posing routine and they
responded on cue. But if the truth be told, no one was a match for Ferrigno
last October 20th despite the close scoring on your reporter's pumproom
assessment. Louie was clearly the universal favorite. And now it only
remained to be seen how the pre-judging had gone some six hours before.

A suicide-bent karate group entertained while the judges held last-minute
conferences, then, once again, the curtain parted to showcase the greatest
physiques ever collected on one stage! It was wards time, and two of the
loveliest majorettes grasped a large velvet pillow on which the medals rested.
Aude Loring, a premier Swiss sex kitten, and other local notables, took
positions to ordain the winners while hard-working Dennis Stallard handled the
announcements.

Polite cheers greeted Deinna's and Beccles' "Small" and "Medium" class
victories. But all knew the true action was among the big boys, and 6,000 eyes
stared solely at them as the "Tall" class presentations wound down to the top
three placings.

"Second runner-up . . . Mike Katz, U.S.A.," came the first critical verdict.
Big Mike toughed it out. He had fought courageously, but was denied again. He
picked up his medal and kiss, and probably stifled a tear. Only Ferrigno and
Waller, now. Whoever was called, the other guy would be Tall Class winner, and
almost certainly the overall champ! You could hear a flea in sneakers. The
announcer delayed for a dramatic second, then "First Runner-up . . . Ken Waller,
U.S.A.!"

Pandemonium! Waller pluckily received his reward, but who was
watching? All eyes were riveted on the stunned Ferrigno. You could see at once
that he knew he had won. Such was the relieved, almost embarrassed, grin
stretching from ear to ear. Barely audible in the shrieking, nearly hysterical
crowd, the announcer battled for control.

"Tall Class Winenr, Louie Ferrigno, U.S.A.!" he called.

Guards had to hold back the well-wishers from both on-stage and off! A sea
of muscle parted as Ferrigno came forth to claim his reward from Ben Weider and
the Mayor. Ed Jubinville, and the other America delegate, Dr. Frederick Tilney,
collapsed happily in the VIP box for the 1-2-3 sweep edged America past France
for team honors. Our proud trio collected a handsome 6-foot trophy for their
effort.

FERRIGNO WANTS SCHWARZENEGGER NEXT, MAYBE. . .

But there was till more; anti-climatic, but essential. The trioka of class
winners had to pose before the judges for final evaluation and certification.
It was a farce. Five-foot-three Deinna looked brave, but he also looked like a
Ferrigno thigh. Beccles, at 5'8", 200 pounds, was likewise mismatched against
our young superman. During group posing, Louie's leg-like arms inadvertently
obscured half the Briton's torso.

There was no way Ferrigno could be beaten! By a 9-0 tally, he was proclaimed
"IFBB Mr. Universe 1973." and he will reign at least until the
next Championships in Verona, Italy, this Fall. That he could successfully
defend the title is almost taken for granted. However, Loui is thinking of
challenging Arnold Schwarzenegger in the "Mr. Olympia" heroics,
which would leave the "Universe" field wide open.

But, last October, the multitude could not complain even though Ferrigno made
a joke of all opposition. They saw the genesis of a legitimate new superhero.
They saw the best-ever I.F.B.B. spectacular, thanks to producer, Raymond Sauvet,
the Swiss I.F.B.B. head - and also the first ever on global TV.

At a victory banquet after the show, one thrilled Chinese spectator
beautifully summed up what he had seen: "January 12th starts our New Year, 'The
Year Of The Ferrigno!'" "Probably the 'Decade Of The Ferrigno'," a reporter
suggested. "Yes," our Oriental friend agreed; "if Louie Ferrigno and Arnold
Schwarzenegger lock horns, it will be a Battle of the Titans to
shake the planet. Think of the bodybuilding mega-tonnage! The world will fall
of Atlas' shoulders!"

PHOTO CAPTIONS

- IFBB President Ben Weider raises giant Lou Ferrigno's hand in victory as he holds his "Mr. Universe" trophy while receiving a thunderous ovation from the audience.

- Here is what 18,000 pounds of muscles look like as we see all the Mr. Universe contestants on stage after the traditional "Parade of Nations". The European Bodybuilding Championships were held at the same time; Albert Beccles winning the "Mr. Europe" title.

- Ben Weider is shown officially opening competition while Raymond Sauvet, Swiss IFBB President and organizer of this contest, stands beside him. Both men are to be congratulated for presenting such a super-outstanding contest.

- A partial view of the 2,000 people who jam-packed the Victoria Hall Theatre to see the World Bodybuilding Championships. Over 500 unlucky fans had to be turned away for lack of seats. ABC-TV's "Wide World of Sports" sent a crew of 12 to cover the entire event.

- Three of the delegates at the IFBB Congress are (left to right) Rene Trempe (Canada), M. Bohbo (Morocco) and L. Labery (Senegal). An interesting part of the special IFBB Medical Symposium was a report on anabolic steroids.

- Colossal Lou Ferrigno, 256-pounds of massively proportioned armor-plated musculature, displays his razor-etched definition with this crowd pleasing twisting back pose that dazzled the audience and wiped out this formidable competitors in a stunning upset.